Finally got the chance to upload this chapter. :) Sorry for the long wait... But enjoy. :)

Lol, the title for this chapter is lame. Sorry. :P If someone can come up with a better one, I'll change it. :P

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"Seriously, how many more memories do we have to go through?"

After seeing a chunk full of flashbacks, I'm sick and tired of them. They were all gut wrenching and just outright painful to watch – for what reason I'm not sure – so I'm just having the greatest time of my life right here.

The white figure rolls its eyes. "Oh, would you just relax? Those flashbacks aren't going to be as important as this one. This is a biggie."

"Seriously? Biggie? What are you? Five?"

The ghost lets out a small chuckle. "Quite frankly, I've only been doing this ghost thing for five years, so technically, yes. But if anyone here is five, I'm pretty sure it's you."

I wasn't expecting the ghost to say that, resulting in me stammering, "J-just shut up." Oh, God, this ghost is seriously getting on my nerves. Why can't time go by any faster?

"I thought you might say that." Its voice is proud, and the ghost earns its thousandth death glare from me. "This one should definitely be something." Lips curling up into a devilish smile, it snaps its fingers once again.

Next thing I know, the figure and I are stumbling across Miami Mall. It looks just like it normally does. People with shopping bags in hand, some eating snacks in the food court, and others walking and talking with those beside them. Seems like a normal day to me. Though, I don't recognize the memory. This has to be someone else's, not mine. Sure, I've been in the mall billions of times, but not this time. I must have been off somewhere else.

The ghost directs my attention to the two teenage girls sitting at one of the tables next to Mini's – one of them being a short brunette, and the other being a Latina with black curly hair.

"I don't know Trish," the brunette said, picking at her miniature fries. "He's just been acting so different lately. I don't know what to do." A melancholy look is spread across her face; depression starting to seep into her.

Instantly, I knew who she was talking about – me. But, "acting different lately"? How different?

The other girl nodded. "Can you define different for me?" Obviously, she doesn't have all the details for whatever this is about yet.

"I honestly don't really know. It's like he's avoiding me." She stopped picking at her fries, and questioned, "Eh, maybe I'm just paranoid. Couples aren't supposed to spend all their time with each other, right?"

"I guess it kind of depends. When was the last time you two went on a date, hung out, or wrote a song?"

"Well, I think it was-" the girl cut herself off. Furrowing her eyebrows, she pondered about the question asked. The last time we were together? Just the two of us? For some reason, the thought makes me shudder. "I-I don't remember. It's been a while though."

"Oh. Really? Well, why don't you try bringing him somewhere?" the Latina suggested. "You know, beach, ice cream, movies, the pancake house maybe?"

An idea in mind, the brunette smiled in thanks. "Yeah, I think ice cream sounds good for today. Thanks, Trish."

The two stood up for a friendly hug when the black-haired girl pointed in the direction behind the brunette. "Hey, look, there's Austin now."

Looking behind her, the brunette spotted me with both hands in my front pockets. My hair's casually messed up just like always, and I remembered back then that I had only one thing set in my mind.

The one and only skate park.

I almost started to jog towards my destination, but was stopped in my tracks by a bouncy brunette. "Hey Austin!" she greeted me.

Raising an eyebrow, I wondered what the girl wanted. "Oh, hey. What do you want?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to go grab some ice cream today. How does that sound?"

"Uh," I faltered. Ice cream didn't sound all that great today, so I wasn't too sure of how to cover that up. Plus, I really needed to get to the skate park. My friends and I were having a competition on who had the best skate boarding moves, and I just had to win it. We were in pairs, and to my dismay I ended up with Dez. That dude is my buddy and all, but when it came to skateboarding... It wasn't the easiest task in the world to him. And, arrogantly, I placed a twenty-dollar bet that we would win. Plus if I didn't show up on time, it was an automatic forfeit.

"Actually," I quickly came up with an excuse on not going. In addition, Ally didn't like me going off to the skate park, and for what reason, I didn't know. "I am really tired today. Maybe next time." I walked away without another word, knowing that I'd be late soon if I didn't hurry up.

Watching myself go off to the park, Ally on the other hand had a confused look on her face – almost hurt. She turned around to face her other friend again, and looked down at the ground as if it were something interesting to look at.

What was her problem?

"You're right," the Latina admitted. "He is different. You know, he doesn't look tired to me."

The brunette nodded in agreement and now unsure of what to do next. But then she spoke up, "Do you think I should try again a few more times? Maybe with a different plan?"

"Yeah, maybe. Eh, but it doesn't work out, come visit me at work or wherever. I'll probably be reading a magazine or something; could use some company there."

Rolling her eyes, the girl replied back, "Thanks Trish. But, hopefully everything will work out."

"I'm sure it will."

The ghost, looking back at me, repeats the same message. "Oh, yeah, everything did work out, didn't it, huh?" I only rolled my eyes back at him. That thing has been rubbing everything in my face, making me hate it even more with each passing second.

"You know what, let's just get this over with." I rub my face with my two hands, already exhausted. I just want to go back to the comfort of my bed, not caring if I couldn't close that window or not. "Can't you make things go faster?"

"Fast enough for everyone to have chipmunk voices? Because I can make that happen."

Raising one eyebrow, I give the figure a weird look. "Seriously?"

"Oh, I know what you meant," it waves off one of its hands. "Eh, but sure. There are more important things to pay attention to anyways, so why not?"

And, of course, the figure does the one thing to make scenes emerge. It snaps its fingers.

"Oh, hey, Austin!" the girl came up to me. "Do you want to go to the beach today?"

Monotonously, I replied, "I thought you hated the beach." I started to make my way in the opposite direction she was going. I was going over to the park to play a game of football with some other people, and wanted to get there as soon as possible. But still the brunette stopped me from going anywhere else further.

"Well, I thought I'd give it another shot, you know?" Giving me a small smile, she continued, "So, how about it? Wanna go today?" Rocking back and forth from her toes to her heels, she waited for a response from me.

"Sorry, I got plans for today. Maybe next time."

I walked away from the brunette.

On another ordinary day, I was playing an acoustic guitar in Sonic Boom – just strumming the strings of the instrument randomly though, not much of a song to me. Then, of course, up to me came a bubbly brunette.

"Hey, Austin!" Yep. Those same words that I heard one day after the other. It was like a catchphrase in a television show. "You doing anything today?"

For some reason, I didn't feel in the mood to do anything that day. I was just sitting there, playing some absurd tune on a guitar without much of a care. "Eh, sorry. I just don't feel like doing anything today."

"Oh, well, maybe I could keep you company!" the girl sat next to me on one of the seats in the store. "You trying to come up with a new song? You know, we haven't written anything in a while."

"No, just bored. That's all. But, you should get back to work, you know. Don't waste your time sitting here with me."

Glancing up at the brunette, she blinked – a blank look on her face. And I noticed her skin go pale for some unknown reason along with her starting to play with thumbs. "Oh, okay. If you insist, I guess." And so, the girl got up and went back to working at the counter.

In the practice room, I sat at the piano playing one of my classic songs – Not a Love Song. It was only the melody of it though; I didn't sing the lyrics that time. Though, as I was playing, I heard the door creak open, and stopped playing.

And to my dismay, I was once again found by the one and only brunette – Ally. Probably came to ask me to go somewhere with her.

"What do you want?" The first thing that comes out of my mouth.

Now that I look back at it, probably not the nicest thing in the world to say.

"Uh," the brunette knitted her eyebrows together. "I just forgot to grab my songbook from over there." She pointed to her leather-bound book laying on one of the chairs; I didn't even realize it was in here. The girl always had her songbook within her sight.

As she clutches the book in her hand, the brunette then exits the room, but before she fully does, she stops herself. "But, Austin?"

"Uh, huh?" There was no interest in my voice during the conversation. I guess I was just out of it today – bored out of my mind.

"I was thinking that maybe if you weren't doing anything that we could-" Oh, this conversation again. Every day it had been the same thing over and over again between us. She asks me if we hang out, I know that I have other plans in mind so I tell it off, and the cycle just repeated itself. Nothing more, nothing less to it.

But to be honest, I was getting sick of it. Nothing fit my mood lately with her. I didn't feel like doing anything, not even my partnership with her.

I felt aggravated.

So, I cut her off – partially unintendedly, "Okay, why the hell have you been so 'clingy' lately?"

Obviously shocked by my use of profanity, the brunette said, "Excuse me? 'Clingy'?"

I stood up from the piano bench and faced her. "Yeah, 'clingy'." I knew what was starting to happen, and what would happen next. As I watched the memory unfold itself, I felt my insides twist into pretzel shapes unimaginable.

Not this memory. The one memory that I dreaded remembering above most. And the one memory that I wished I could forget but couldn't.

I continued, "Don't you realize that I'm busy? I got things to do!"

Noticing the brunette tighten the grip on her book, "Oh, yeah, you're busy." She took the time to put air quotes around the last word. "But, gee, I thought you might be a little more considerate to spend some time with your girlfriend, you know."

"Hey, I can't spend every fucking second with you, you know! I actually have a life outside of our relationship!" Anger was now bubbling up inside of me as I clenched my fists, digging my nails into the skin of my palms. Had she ever heard of personal space?

"Whoa," I could just tell that my sudden use of different language made her look taken aback. "I know that. But being in a relationship takes commitment, and you obviously aren't showing any! We've been able to handle busy schedules with our relationship before, so why not now?"

"Because things change! This isn't some fairy tale fantasy we're living in!"

"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't still have just a little bit of time for me!" Unsure of what to fire out of my mouth next, I let the girl continue to talk, but still listened despite the steam coming out of my ears. "Austin, I just want to spend some time with you! I don't care if it's just a day, an hour, or just a few minutes. We can't even have a decent conversation! Is that too much to ask for?"

I didn't bother to say anything. The argument was getting intense, and I didn't want to spread the fire through more woods.

"And you know what, maybe if this isn't going to work out for us, then why do I bother to try with you anyway?"

"Can't make this work? Are we just going to break up?"

Silence settled its place in the room momentarily. It was the only sound for a bit, and considering the situation, music to my ears.

The girl stepped aside from the room's door. "Fine, then. I think I've tried long enough, so if this is how it's going to be, just get out of the store."

Really? Get out of the store? I scoffed, "Alright, fine. See if I care you-you-" I wanted to spit some insult back at her, and for a second I wasn't sure I what exactly wanted to say, but just left with, "-bitch."

I slammed the door shut.

After I left the room, the brunette stood with her arms crossed. At first, I expected her to maybe burst into tears like all other girls do in movies, but it seemed to almost be the opposite of that. Instead, her lips seem to curl up into a smile – just a small one. I could barely notice the grin hiding behind the grim atmosphere. She said to herself, "To think, that I actually believed he would keep that stupid promise."

"And to think that I thought change was always good."

Everything evaporates in front of me in the practice room again, just like last time. And I find the ghost to be stifling a chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's nothing," the ghost says to me. "Just the fact that you gave up a girl who'd do anything for you."

Annoyingly, I roll my eyes at the white figure for just about the hundredth time. "And that's supposed to be funny?"

"Well, for a ghost of love, yeah. It's funny how you humans break up with people that have actually learned that they love you!" Taking a deep breath in seriousness, it continues, "But, sometimes, it's the other person that needs to be taught how to love. Or else it all goes downhill from there."

And for the first time tonight, I actually can't help but agree with him.

Er... Not entirely too proud of this chapter. For one, it's definitely a lot shorter than the other ones. Eh, well excluding these author's notes, the chapter itself is about 2500 words, which isn't too bad, I guess. But, yeah... Hopefully y'all still liked it anyway. :P

Oh, btw, if I don't get the chance next time... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :) :D

And if you don't mind, leave a review for me? :) Until next time!